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Saw the scariest thing in my 5 years of trucking last week

7K views 64 replies 17 participants last post by  The-Dullahan 
#1 ·
Was driving north of Cincinnati on I-71 at 3 AM. All of a sudden not more than a few hundred yards ahead of me, I just start seeing headlights spinning in a very frantic barrel roll fashion across my lanes on the interstate, coming to rest upside down leaning against a concrete wall on an overpass.

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It almost bounced over the wall onto the road 35 feet below. Another trucker and I both stopped right away and ran up to the SUV. It was a 2004 or so Explorer. Thankfully the two occupants were ok. We helped pull them outa the upside down truck, and stayed with them until police got there.

Definitely the craziest thing I've seen since I've been driving truck. They must have rolled 2-3 times b4 resting on the wall. The driver told me a deer ran out in front of him and he swerved. I really hate deer. They cause way to many wrecks on the roads!
 
#39 ·
My most recent such story was much lead exciting.

Driving with a friend at around two AM one morning on the same aforementioned roadway, doing around 55 mph, I would wager, we came around one particularly tight curve that is in fact so very sharp of a turn that each lane doubles it's width to accommodate vehicles moving faster than they should be. As usual, there was no traffic on our dark, lightness road as we crept up to the turn and slowed the truck slightly. We came through to the very short straight section between this turn and the next (at most fifteen feet) and I saw something ahead of us. Something dark and so low to the ground I would not have seen it had I not been coming out of the turn. I am sure that from her seat it wasn't visible at all. With a sharp, quick THUD, we went over...or through...the obstacle. Didn't flinch or even brake. It was over and I knew that the truck was fine. She stirred and calmly rolled over to face me.

"What was that?"

"An alligator. Eight feet, maybe nine."

"Ahh."
 
#40 ·
Another of road hazards encountered on the same road where I had the collision with the young camel, was the occasional large python (we didn't really care much about going over the small ones, although we would try to avoid hitting those). As the road came off the plateau it descended into a deep valley where the vegetation was really thick and tropical. This deep valley, about three to four thousand almost straight down from the lip of the escarpment to the valley's floor, named "Python Valley" and was said to be the place where the longest pythons ever measured were caught.

I, personally, only ever encountered the small ones of about 15 feet, but the guys who drove the semi to the port of Massaua to pick up supplies said they had had to stop for snakes much larger. Some of which were at least two across their middles. They said they always stopped, fearing that running over a snake that big might really damage their truck!

Once in the bottom of Python Valley you had to climb, and switchback, up another 500 foot mountain ridge and down the other side before coming to the chaparral and the desert leading to the Red Sea. This [articular drive made the road used in this years Cadillac ATS commercials look like child's play .... and that was without the baboons, wayward camels, pythons and God knows what else lurked along this Eritrean road.
 
#42 ·
Anything is possible (well almost anything). One night on my way home from work at about midnight I saw 2 glowing dots in front of me on the county back road. Thinking it was a deer, I slowed down only to find myself face to ugly face with hundreds of pounds of beef on the hoof. Thankfully he was looking in my direction because his ass doesn't glow in the dark like his eyes did.
 
#46 ·
I almost hit a formation of nuns who were out for their morning jog at 5:30 AM. Fortunately I saw them at the last minute as I was backing out of my driveway. They were coming two abreast down the middle of the street. I guess this was a regular routine with them; their nunnery was about three blocks from my house. You can bet I looked both ways as I backed out from that point forward!

I am sure the nuns would have cost me a lot more than Eritrean camels.
 
#47 ·
About two years ago driving in suburban Nashville I hit both a rabbit and a possum in my 91 Brougham on the same 30 mile trip from my friend's house back to mine.

The rabbit, well he just committed suicide. He jumped out from the ditch on the right at the last minute while I was doing 35mph, had enough time to say "HURRY UP!!!" before I heard/felt him double thunk under the left side wheels. I had enough time to lift off the gas, but that was it. Stopped and turned around to make sure it was a clean kill, I didn't want him twitching there for another hour or two with a busted spine, then have himself pecked to death by the vultures. Sure enough he was dead.

About 20 miles down the road on a narrow two lane which I was speeding, a possum tried to cross from the left side of the road right in front of my car. Once again it was one of those unavoidable collisions, I was hauling ass and just kept my line steady, by that point if I slammed on my brakes it would be a fight to keep the car in its lane around that sweeping right hander.

I had just enough time to see him scurry across the road and hoped that he would be in between the wheels. Nope, heard and felt a very solid thunk. I kind of tightened my line around that sweeping right hander, trying to keep him between the wheels. I know if I had taken that corner wide into the opposing lane I would have missed him. Once again I turned around, if it wasn't a clean kill, I was damn sure going to make sure I killed him the 2nd time I ran over him. Unfortunetly I just maimed him, no sign of him, I assumed he scurried into the ditch and woods to die.
 
#61 · (Edited)
Florida bugs always bring friends. Driving for about two hours through Florida, making two stops on the trip to clean the car, looks like this.





As for rabbits, you cannot hear or feel them if they are hit by one of my cars. I normally just check the rearview and see if they are rolling towards my car, indicating they did get hit. Throughout the year, I probably take out between 300-400 rabbits with my cars.

And as for nuns, I avoid hitting them. I like nuns. Four of my best friends are weapon-toting, motorbike-riding nuns.
 
#54 · (Edited)
We've got pythons here in Florida. The state changed the laws in 2008 when some people killed their kid and used a put python as a scapegoat. New laws made moat if us release our snakes into the wild (they wanted us to kill them) and it only increased the wild population 50 fold.

I got my paperwork done and can still keep them. Coupled with a class 3 licence I can keep basically anything as a pet now.


I need a pit of lions...
 
#56 ·
My step dad, back in 89, hit an old lady who was drunk off her ass with his brand new 89 Camry. She went thru his windshield head first! She got up n walked away! Unphased! He got out and physically stopped her. Told her he wasn't letting her go until the cops got there bc of the damage to his new car.

She threw about 13 beer cans out from her coat into the bushes right in front of him lol.

The cops and medic got there and the medic had to give her a shot so he says to the lady "this might hurt". The cop looked at the medic and said "she just put her head thru the windshield of a 30 mph car and walked away. I highly doubt the shot will hurt".
 
#58 ·
My step dad, back in 89, hit an old lady who was drunk off her ass with his brand new 89 Camry. She went thru his windshield head first! She got up n walked away! Unphased! He got out and physically stopped her. Told her he wasn't letting her go until the cops got there bc of the damage to his new car.
Boy did that bring back a memory. In 1967 or '68 an old man stepped right into the street in front of me in a 45 MPH zone. There was oncoming traffic and people on the sidewalk so there was no where to go. I have no idea how much I got slowed down by the time I hit him but he rolled across the hood and over the top. I was sure he was in bad shape but he got right up and later refused to get in the ambulance when it arrived.

Weeks later I got a letter telling me I had to appear in court on such and such date and time. Being a kid, I figured they were throwing the book at me for something. It didn't dawn on me at the time that I would have received a citation at the scene. So I showed up at court to find I was being called as a witness against the (turned out to be 90 year old) man for jay walking! Damn, did I feel bad. His 70 year old daughter was really giving the judge a piece of her mind and had to be ejected.
 
#65 ·
One of the four I know is a skilled Martial Artist and formerly taught Swordsmanship. Naturally, that is how I met her. I met one of the others first, who I then met again a little over a year later when however unlikely, our paths crossed again. She insisted on introducing me to the other three. I have gone on to joke that I would have my weaponsmith make her a broadsword with inch markings engraved into it, like a yardstick. She...did not find it as funny as I did.

Anyhow, it is good to know such people. Two different...teams, shall we say, but we work towards several common goals. Also, large quantities of Holy Water come in handy, such as a couple months back when I replaced my Radiator. (Yes. My Cadillac and Pontiac both use Holy Water for cooling purposes)

 
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